SONGS:
-- Where The Death Squad Lives --
28 January 1986. Toronto, Canada.


Found on:

Big Circumstance (1988)

Rumours of Glory - box set Disc 4 (2014) [compilation album]
Lyrics:

Goons in blackface creeping in the road --
Farm family waiting for the night to explode --
Working the land in an age of terror
You come to see the moon as the bad news bearer
Down where the death squad lives

They cut down people like they cut down trees --
Chop off its head so it will stay on its knees --
The forest shrinks but the earth remains
Slash and burn and it grows again
Down where the death squad lives.

I've got friends trying to batter the system down
Fighting the past till the future comes round.
It'll never be a perfect world till God declares it that way
But that don't mean there's nothing we can do or say
Down where the death squad lives

Like some kind of never-ending Easter passion,
From every agony a hero's fashioned.
Around every evil there gathers love --
Bombs aren't the only things that fall from above
Down where the death squad lives
down where the death squad lives

Sometimes I feel like there's a padlock on my soul.
If you opened up my heart you'd find a big black hole
But when the feeling comes through, it comes through strong --
If you think there's no difference between right and wrong
Just go down where the death squad lives

This world can be better than it is today
You can say I'm a dreamer but that's okay
Without the could-be and the might-have-been
All you've got left is your fragile skin
And that ain't worth much down where the death squad lives



Known comments by Bruce Cockburn about this song, by date:


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    This page is part of The Cockburn Project, a unique website that exists to document the work of Canadian singer-songwriter and musician Bruce Cockburn. The Project archives self-commentary by Cockburn on his songs and music, and supplements this core part of the website with news, tour dates, and other current information.